Overview
- The Senate rejected a Congressional Review Act resolution led by Sen. John Kennedy, with the measure failing 72–25 and leaving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule in force.
- The plan, finalized last year, authorizes the removal of up to roughly 450,000 barred owls over about three decades in California, Oregon and Washington.
- USFWS protocols require two trained identifiers and designated removal specialists to shoot barred owls, with capture and euthanasia used where firearms are not suitable.
- Environmental groups and logging interests backed keeping the rule, and Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden endorsed it, while animal-welfare advocates and some Republicans condemned the cull as inhumane and vowed to continue litigation.
- Funding remains mixed after three federal grants in California were canceled in May, even as a $4.3 million state grant and a separate NASA-funded university project to remove barred owls proceed.